Category Archives: Menaion of the Isles

The Menaion of the Saints of the Isles: The Services to the Major Saints of the British Isles and Ireland

The struggle to compose and then have accepted and celebrated services to the ancient Orthodox Saints of the ex-Roman Catholic and ex-Protestant countries of Europe has been a very long one. Much opposition had to and sometimes still has to be overcome and all had to be done in conditions of deprivation and opposition. Nearly all the services to the major saints of Western Europe were composed between 1980 and 2015, though a few date back before this, in part through the blessed inspiration of St John of Shanghai and Western Europe (+ 1966).

Of the 64 services we propose to edit, 53 were composed by my late friend, the brilliant and prolific translator of the Church’s liturgical treasury, Monk Joseph (Isaac/Edward) Lambertsen. He composed most of the services to local Western saints on my commission, as I knew that his health was already failing, and that he was very busy, engaged with the composition of many other services to saints of all lands and ages, as well as with translations. Isaac worked quickly and always humbly, sending me his services for checking, suggestions and then electronic publishing.

Six of these services (All the Saints of the Isles, All the Saints of the Western Lands, St Alfred, St Audrey, St Edmund and St Felix), were composed by myself to long-beloved local saints between 1998 and 2015, though in part they go back before that, three services (St Patrick, St Brigid and St Edward) were composed by the late Valeria Hoecke and translated by Monk Joseph, one (to St Botolph) by the monks of the Transfiguration Monastery in Boston in 1992 and one (to St Rumwold) by Rumwold Leigh from London.

For many years available in an unedited form on the orthodoxengland website, it has long been time to edit and present these services in a homogenous form for use in the British Isles and Ireland. Time has been in short supply and it will be a labour of love over the next few years to bring all the services to the same standard, that set by the brilliant translations of Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), master of Byzantine Greek and liturgical English. This means eliminating the language of the neophyte, that curious mixture of artificially archaic English and its Latinate Victorian vocabulary and grammar and untranslated foreign literalisms, and so inculturating the services for the 21st century. Our services are intended for use in the local liturgical English in use in the British Isles, without an alien phraseology and sectarian idiom.

Thus they will be put into the standard liturgical English, as used in our parishes in these islands. Apart from this change, there are occasional historical inaccuracies and typos and above all the many changes made to formating, spelling and punctuation. Of the 62 individual saints whose services we project to edit, 50 are connected with England (though 8 are not English), 5 with Ireland, 4 with Wales and 3 with Scotland. To some extent this reflects the interest in native Orthodoxy shown by people in each of these countries, with much greater interest being shown in England.

We dedicate this Menaion to the eternal memory of our pioneer, Monk Joseph (Lambertsen) (1949-2017). Eternal Memory!

Archpriest Andrew Phillips,

St John’s Orthodox Church,

Colchester,

England

St Edmund’s Tide

20 November/3 December 2020

1151st Anniversary of St Edmund’s Martyrdom

Contents

 All dates are given first according to the Church calendar, and then according to the civil calendar. Services in bold have already been edited.

Volume I – September to March

  1. 16 / 29 September – St Ninian
  2. 16 / 29 September – St Edith of Wilton
  3. 19 September / 2 October – St Theodore of Tarsus
  4. 7 / 20 October – St Osyth of Chich
  5. 10 / 23 October – St Paulinus of York
  6. 12 / 25 October – St Edwin the Martyr
  7. 12 / 25 October – St Wilfrid of York
  8. 19 October / 2 November – St Frideswide of Oxford
  9. 25 October / 7 November – St John of Beverley
  10. 26 October / 9 November – St Alfred the Great
  11. 26 October / 9 November – St Cedd of Essex
  12. 3 /16 November – St Rumwold
  13. 3 / 16 November – St Winifred of Wales
  14. 7 / 20 November – St Willibrord (Clement) of Utrecht
  15. 17 / 30 November – St Hilda of Whitby
  16. 20 November / 3 December – St Edmund the Martyr
  17. 3 / 16 December – St Birinus of Wessex
  18. 12 / 25 December – St Finnian of Clonard
  19. 12 / 25 January – St Benedict of Wearmouth
  20. 14 / 27 January – St Kentigern of Glasgow
  21. 15 / 28 January – St Ita of Ireland
  22. 29 January / 11 February – St Gildas the Wise
  23. 1 / 14 February – St Brigid of Ireland
  24. 3 / 16 February – St Werburga
  25. 25 February / 10 March – St Ethelbert of Kent
  26. 28 February / 13 March – St Oswald of Worcester
  27. 1 / 14 March – St David of Wales
  28. 2 / 15 March – St Chad of Lichfield
  29. 8 / 21 March – St Felix, Apostle of East Anglia
  30. 17 / 30 March – St Patrick of Ireland
  31. 18 / 31 March – St Edward the Martyr
  32. 20 March / 2 April – St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Volume II – April to August

  1. 10 / 23 April – Martyrs of Chertsey
  2. 11 – 24 April – St Guthlac of Crowland
  3. 19 April / 2 May – St Alphege the Martyr
  4. 29 April / 12 May – St Erconwald of London
  5. 3 / 16 May – St Brendan the Voyager
  6. 19 May / 1 June – St Dunstan of Canterbury
  7. 25 May/7 June – St Aldhelm of Sherborne
  8. 27 May / 9 June – St Bede the Venerable
  9. 28 May / 10 June – St Augustine of Canterbury
  10. 30 May / 12 June – St Walstan of Taverham

Falling in June or July

  1. All the Saints of the Isles
  2. All the Saints of the Western Lands
  3. 1 / 14 June – St Wite of Dorset
  4. 3 / 16 June – St Kevin of Glendalough
  5. 5 / 18 June – St Boniface of Crediton
  6. 9 – 22 June – St Columba of Iona
  7. 17 / 30 June – St Botolph of Iken
  8. 17 – 30 June – St Nectan of Hartland
  9. 22 June – 5 July – St Alban of Verulamium
  10. 23 June / 6 July – St Audrey of Ely
  11. 2 / 15 July – St Swithin of Winchester
  12. 8 / 21 July – St Edgar the Peaceful
  13. 13 / 26 July – St Mildred of Thanet
  14. 1 / 14 August – St Ethelwold of Winchester
  15. 2 / 15 August – St Plegmund of Canterbury
  16. 5 /18 August – St Oswald the Martyr
  17. 10 / 23 August – St Bertram of Ilam
  18. `17 / 30 August – St James of York
  19. 23 August/5 September – St Ebba of Coldingham and Companions
  20. 25 August/7 September – St Ebba of Coldingham
  21. 31 August/13 September – St Aidan of Lindisfarne
  22. 31 August/13 September – St Eanswythe of Folkestone